Family Offers To Improve Tiny Berlin Park

BERLIN — A tiny park on a busy town center corner will get a much-needed upgrade if the town approves a family's offer to restore Deming Park in memory of Lucille Micacci who died in 2013 at age 68.

Initial plans for an upgrade of Deming Park were sent July 7 by the Town Council to the town planning commission for review. The proposal also will require approval by the park commission prior to a council vote on the offer from Micacci's husband and children.

Deming, a small triangle of land at the intersection of Main Street and Kensington Road, now has a few bushes, a marker telling the town's history and, in winter, signs that tell when ice skating is allowed on Paper Goods and other town ponds.

The proposal by Anthony Micacci and family would improve landscaping, add walks, lightposts and a compass medallion in a stone-paved central section, according to plans to be reviewed by town officials.

"The Micacci family expressed a desire to do something in memory of Lucille Micacci, and Deming Park was the choice," Town Manager Denise McNair said Friday. "This is a lovely offer for the town."

The amount the family wants to donate to pay for the project was not available, as specific plans have yet to be approved by the town so the work can start. The family made the request last year, but drawings of a proposal were not ready for town review until recently.

Deming Park is in a section of downtown Kensington that the town plans to improve and develop as a commercial-retail-residential center with the soon-to-be renovated train station as the centerpiece. McNair said an improved Deming Park would add to the section.

The town center project has received more than $1 million in state funds and grants, including $204,300 awarded to Berlin last September as part of the state's Main Street Investment Fund, which distributed $5 million to 13 towns to develop or improve commercial districts.

Berlin's funds will add sidewalks, pavers, decorative lights and street trees to the Kensington center, including crosswalks and a paver accent walk around Deming Park, according to a state report on the grant.